night she was accustomed to gather the daily papers after they had been thrown aside. Taking these to her room she used to cut from them the list of death notices, and laying these before her she knelt and in prayer commended those in sorrow to the gracious help of her Father in heaven. She did not know them, but they were in sorrow, and in the only way she could she ministered to them. We are not judges, but I much mistake if in the eyes of Him who judges not as man judges, such service as that does not rank high up above the princely gifts that attract the attention of the world.—Robert Johnston.
(2923)
SERVICE WITH HARDSHIP
In a recent number of Forward the story
is told of a young Chinese slave girl whose
mistress brought her to the Presbyterian
Mission Hospital at Canton. She was
doomed to blindness and lameness, so her
mistress abandoned her. The doctors amputated
her leg and gave her little tasks to
perform about the place and taught her
about the heavenly Father and Savior. She
developed leprosy and was forced to leave
these friends whom she had learned to love,
and go to the darkness and horror of a leper
settlement. But she went a Christian, and
in two years that blind, crippled leper built
up a band of Christians in that leper settlement,
and in five years a church grew out
of her work. That poor crippled invalid life
is to-day a center of joy and service, and
other leper villages are sending to her to
ask about the wonderful good news which
can bring joy even to outcasts.
(2924)
Service, Wrong Conception of—See Seeking Service.
SHADOW
In sylviculture the growth and fiber qualities
of young conifers are artificially improved
by shutting off the sunlight and leaving the
trees in very dark places.
There are many virtues in human
character that seem to develop more
robustly and come to finer strength in
the shadows of adversity.
(2925)
SHADOW AND SUNSHINE
A terrible shadow in Coleridge's life was
the apparent cause of most of his dejection.
In early life he suffered from neuralgia, and
to ease the pain began to use opiates. The
result on such a temperament was almost
inevitable. He became a slave to the drug
habit; his naturally weak will lost all its
directing and sustaining force, until, after
fifteen years of pain and struggle and despair,
he gave up and put himself in charge
of a physician, one Mr. Gillman, of Highgate.
Carlyle, who visited him at this time,
calls him "a king of men," but records that
"he gave you the idea of a life that had been
full of sufferings, a life heavy-laden, half-vanquished,
still swimming painfully in seas
of manifold physical and other bewilderment."—William
J. Long, "English Literature."
(2926)
Shadow of a Great Life—See Living in the Shadow.
SHADOWS
We are made sure that the sun shines not
necessarily by seeing it, but often by noting
the shadows it casts.
So the presence of God in our lives
may often be indicated by the shadows
of sorrow and trial.
(2927)
SHAKING-UP
Many a man will confess that a sound
thrashing at the hands of some other lad in
the days of his youth was the beginning of
his moral development; that, after the ache
was over, it set him to thinking. Nature
abhors monotony almost as much as a
vacuum, and seems to have provided that at
various times a general shaking up is necessary
to maintain the proper standard.—James
M. Stifler, "The Fighting Saint."
(2928)
SHAME
If our deeds were all to be put on a canvas for men to see, should we be as much ashamed of some as them, as the man in this anecdote?
There was once a rich landlord who
cruelly opprest a poor widow. Her son, then
a little boy of eight years, witnessed it. He
became a great painter, and painted a likeness
of the dark scene. Years afterward he
placed it where the cruel man saw it. He
recognized himself in the shameful picture,
turned pale, trembled in every joint, and
offered a large sum to purchase it that he
might put it out of sight. (Text.)—Louis
Albert Banks.
(2929)
